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PIMS: AN ARCHITECTURE FOR A WEB ENABLED PATIENT INFORMATION & MONITORING SYSTEM Abstract

Health Related information and personalized information retrieval and access is critical to applications in the medical and healthcare domain where the accuracy of the retrieved information and obtaining it in a time-critical situation are extremely important. In this paper we present our ideas regarding a new architecture for a web enabled Patient Information and Monitoring System (PIMS). PIMS is a multi tier web-enabled system, which focuses on medical information storage, management and retrieval, instead of simply financial functions, so characteristic of more traditional Hospital Information Systems (HIS). We observe that many medical information systems suffer from the centralized nature and inflexibility of their design, and fail to satisfy the distributed requirements of a global healthcare system. Our motivation for PIMS derives from the tremendous increase in available electronic medical information and demand for quick information access. We present the conceptual and operational architecture for an information system that integrates advanced web and information technology to retrieve information. In addition, the system provides not only all of the functionality of a traditional HIS, but also incorporates the distributed flexibility and access of the Web.

Keywords: Web enabled, Information System, Distributed System, Knowledgebase, Database, Software Architecture, Protocols.

1. Introduction

Healthcare has become one of the most important service industries undergoing rapid structural transformations. In this transformation, a number of factors have contributed towards making access to patient health information, a critical success factor for health organizations including hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities11. A patient’s health record may be composed of heterogeneous data with varying granularity as well as different display formats. On the other hand this data may directly come from clinical observations or be the result of several processing steps performed on images captured from different sources10. Information overload and complexity of data storage format leads to the need of more flexible solutions for information presentation to the users, whether they are patients, staff, physicians or simply general users seeking health information. In general, health professionals have to review large quantities of data to gain access to relevant patient information. Medical information must also be available and shareable among different physicians so that they can exchange their diagnosis or discuss patient history and symptoms. However, this access needs to be without the constraints of semantic and location diversity.

In today’s information age where knowledge updates continuously and quickly, people need fast, accurate and efficient means of acquiring and processing information. In many countries, and especially developing countries, a driving force for healthcare has recently been the trend towards better coordination of all health related activities12. In this respect, the focus has changed from isolated procedures in a single healthcare institution (e.g. a hospital or a clinic) to the patient-oriented care process spreading beyond institutional boundaries. This approach, as a result, leads to a shift towards better integrated and shared healthcare services. In this new scenario the healthcare providers and healthcare

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Wyne, M., & Baloglu, A. (2009, June), Pims: An Architecture For A Web Enabled Patient Information And Monitoring System Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--4681